high rise hearts ☆ lifesteal smp au

𝐅𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐇 ✦

𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲: fluff
𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀: swagdoons
𝘁𝘄: n/a
𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆: n/a
𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁: ash refuses to accept the fact he got sick. redd will make him accept it though

─── ⋅☆⋅ ───

𝐏𝐎𝐕: ash

He didn't remember when the headache had first started. It wasn't really a problem at first, just a dull ache in the back of his head. So he assumed it was just a byproduct of his atrocious sleep schedule and moved on with his day.
Now, though, it was more than a problem. The rainbow strobe lights swirling around the apartment only served to further the stabbing pain in his temples, and he struggled to simply keep his head upright. Hey, he hadn't fainted yet or anything.
Whenever anyone asked why in the world he was wearing a hoodie and sweatpants in August, or why he'd spent his entire time at the party leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, he'd brush off their concerns and say he was fine, because he was Ash and he didn't need help with whatever the hell was going on with his head. They'd leave him alone after that.
Everyone except Reddoons, that is. He was standing, arms crossed, in front of him, stubbornly determined to figure out what was going on. Ash was never in the mood for this treatment, and he was certainly not today.
"Just- leave me alone, Redd." He rasped out- it felt like his throat was lined with gravel. "I'll be fine."
"Ash, you are not fine. It's really obvious, you know?" Redd's sunglasses glinted in the rainbows of color shining from behind them, masking the look of concern in his eyes. (The sight was almost pretty, almost. He was not one for sentiments.)
"I don't care- I'm not dying, I can handle this-" He slumped against the wall, voice exhausted, never more ready for Redd to just leave him alone. His annoyance just seemed to fuel the fire of his already agonizing headache. Why couldn't Redd just leave him alone?
"Yeah, I don't trust that." Before Ash could stop him, Redd had moved closer, laying a warm hand on his freezing forehead. He shivered at the touch, part from the temperature difference and part from embarrassment. God, if anyone looked over and saw them like this, he might as well die.
The frown already on Redd's face was pressed into a thin line of displeasure. "Damn, your forehead's hot. You might actually be sick with something-"
"No, no- I don't need help. The party's only gonna last for like another hour, anyways-" Ash , interrupted by a random coughing fit, instead pushes himself up from the wall in an attempt to prove his point, then stumbles, muttering curses under his breath as another imaginary needle embeds itself in his skull.
Redd awkwardly grabs him by his sleeve, trying to prevent him from tipping over entirely, and he caught a flash of his stupid sympathetic face as he was gently lifted upright, then draped carefully against Redd's side. Admittedly, it felt nice to lean into any sort of support, although he might have still preferred the wall over Redd's shoulder, however strong and warm it was, because leaning on the wall was less humiliating.
"No, you're going home, Ash. You obviously need rest, and we can't have everybody else going home sick." Redd says firmly, and at this point he's too tired to argue back- he can barely think of a retaliation, with his head in its current state. So he lets Redd lead him out the door, arm slung over his shoulder, barely hearing the excuse Redd gives Spoke over the sound of his own wheezing cough.
He walks down the stairs in a daze, the only thing guiding him through it being Redd's blurry silhouette. The headache was so bad it was fogging his vision, along with the increasing amount of glitches buzzing in his hair like mosquitoes, except he couldn't swat them away- they'd only come back.
"Do you have any other symptoms?" Redd asks, half-focused on getting him to walk down the steps in as straight a line as possible.
"Uhh-" Ash pauses to let out another flurry of coughs, and he can feel Redd's hand tighten a little around the top of his arm. "I've had, like, a headache- dunno when it started-"
"And you're coughing." Redd sighs. They've somehow made it down the stairs and out of the lobby, and the warm summer air is a relief to his freezing skin.
They walk down the quiet street for a little while, pointedly avoiding each other's gazes (or Ash is avoiding Redd's staring, at least), until they reach the unmistakable fancy sports car. Usually, he'd make some remark about how he'd steal it someday, but his headache didn't seem to like the idea.
Redd swings open the car door and ever so gently lowers him onto the seat, adjusting his limp body until he was in a reasonably comfortable laying position before shutting the door. A moment later, he slid into the driver's seat beside him.
"You good?" A simple question, but the soft tone Redd used to ask it felt so strange to Ash- it was intimate in a way that made him feel like he shouldn't be the one hearing it.
"Yeah, fine." The use of his voice triggered another series of harsh coughs. Redd looks doubtful, but doesn't ask any further questions, instead starting the car.